DaytonDailyNews.com

In all the talk of bailouts and bubbles, our nation's pundits are missing the fundamental point that working Americans have been suffering much longer than companies like A.I.G. or Citibank.

For years, communities have had to watch their good manufacturing jobs disappear. The new high-tech jobs that were supposed to replace the old ones never materialized. Working families have seen friends and neighbors scramble for part-time, underpaid McJobs that don't pay the rent or bills.

For the last 25 years, real wages have dropped, even though working people's productivity has soared. People have struggled to maintain their living standards through credit cards, loans and by decreasing their savings. But you can't maintain a consumer-driven economy on debt forever.

New labor law reform legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, will restore workers' freedom to improve their living standards — and our economy — by forming unions, free from employer interference and intimidation. There won't be a sustainable recovery unless we address workers' ability to bargain for a better deal.

People who have a union, after all, make 30 percent more than those who don't. In Ohio, the union difference is $9,923 per year. Union workers are also much more likely to have health insurance and benefits.

According to independent polling, when U.S. workers without a union are asked if they would like to join one, well over half answer yes. Unfortunately, most of them will never get the chance.

Every day corporations deny workers the right to form a union by forcing them to go through company-controlled elections, in which companies routinely coerce, harass and fire workers for supporting a union.

A quarter of companies fire union supporters in union organizing campaigns, often in the days leading up to the election. Three-quarters of companies force workers into one-on-one meetings against the union with their direct supervisors, and employees often aren't allowed to speak, according to a study from Cornell University. Meanwhile, union representatives aren't even allowed on the premises to talk to employees.

Does this seem like a free and fair election?

In 2005, more than 31,358 cases filed under the National Labor Relations Act found evidence of employers harassing, intimidating and firing workers for supporting a union.

The reason companies will go to all lengths to stop workers from organizing is the same reason Big Business interests have put down big money to stop passage of the EFCA: They don't want to give workers the power to bargain for fair wages and benefits.

The EFCA would eliminate the problem of rigged, company-dominated elections by letting workers decide how they want to form a union. There are currently two potential ways for workers to express their decision on whether to form a union:

• They can petition for an election.

• They can be recognized when a majority signs cards saying they want a union.

The problem is that companies get to decide which way the workers decide. The EFCA would put the choice of how to form a union into workers' hands, not companies'.

All employees should have the freedom to decide whether to form a union. Our labor laws do not respect workers' choice. Our laws promote wage inequality and depress our middle class. In today's economy it is more important than ever that we fix them.

Let's level the playing field and give working people a chance.

Joe Rugola is president of the Ohio AFL-CIO.